The Significant Name of God (28)
The wonderful example of king Yehoshaphat of Yehudah1
André H. Roosma
6 November 2024 (Dutch original:
30 July 2024)
In the Bible, God’s Word, we come across the most appealing stories about
how people in that time lived with their God YaHUaH2, and
-especially- about how He lived with them! One of those stories can be found
in 2 Chronicles 20:1-20. It is about the kingdom of Yehudah at the time of King Yehoshaphat.
It is full of life lessons that are still very relevant to us now, thousands
of years later.
1 And it happened after
this, that the descendants of Mo’ab, the descendants of ‘Ammon, and with them
other ‘Ammonites [or: Meunites] came to battle
against Yehoshaphat. 2
And they came and told Yehoshaphat, saying, A great
multitude is come up against you from beyond the sea, from ’Aram; behold, they
are in Chatsetson-Tamar - that is, ‘Ein-gedi -.
3 Then Yehoshaphat
became afraid [or: he was in awe], and he
sought to inquire of YaHUaH, and he proclaimed a fast throughout all
Yehudah. 4 And
Yehudah gathered together to seek help from
YaHUaH, and out of all the cities of Yehudah they came to inquire of YaHUaH.
What is happening here? Three peoples, who lived on the other side of the
Dead Sea, have moved around it and are about to attack Yehudah from the south. As soon as King Yehoshaphat hears about this, he becomes afraid. His reaction is exemplary,
however. He makes a decision; that is a conscious action. He decides to
consult YaHUaH. This is always the best thing we can do, certainly
also in a situation that we cannot handle humanly. He calls all of Yehudah together to fast together and thus seek help
from YaHUaH together, yes, it says: to seek YaHUaH. He is our
Help! It is wise to seek Him Himself above all, in all circumstances.
Even then, when everyone has come together, Yehoshaphat takes the lead:
5 And Yehoshaphat stood in the midst of the assembly of
Yehudah and Yerushalaïm in the house of YaHUaH, before the new court, 6 and said, YaHUaH, God of our forefathers, are
You not God in heaven? Do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations?
In Your hand is power and might; no one is able to withstand you. 7 Are you not our God, who did drive out the inhabitants
of this land before your people Isra’el and gave it to the seed of ’Abraham
your friend forever? 8 They dwelt there and built
You a sanctuary there for Your Name, and said, 9
If disaster should come upon us, whether sword, judgment, pestilence, or
famine, we will stand before this House and before You, for Your Name is in
this House. When we cry to You in our distress, You will hear and help
us.
King Yehoshaphat here commemorates what
YaHUaH, their God for generations, has done all that time, how He has
driven other peoples out of this land before Isra’el and planted them there.
In other words: while remembering, he praises YaHUaH for His power and
for what He has done for Isra’el. He subtly reminds God and the entire people
that their forefather ’Abraham was God’s friend. He also remembers what
Shelomoh (Solomon) had prayed and what
YaHUaH had promised: that if they were in need and would pray to
YaHUaH there, that YaHUaH would hear them (see
2 Chron.6:20-30; 1 Kings 8:33-35; 2 Chron.7:13).
He continues:
10 Now, behold, the
descendants of ‘Ammon, the descendants of Mo’ab, and the people of Mount Se‘ir,
against whom You did not let Isra’el come up when they came out of the land
of Mitsraïm [that is Egypt], because they
passed by them and did not destroy them (see
Num.20:14-21; Deut.2:4-9) -, 11 behold,
they repay us by coming up to drive us out of Your possession, which You have
given us as an inheritance. 12 O our God, will You
not judge them? For we are not able to withstand this great multitude that
has come against us, and we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.
13 All Yehudah stood
before YaHUaH, even their little children, their wives, and their
sons.
In a special way Yehoshaphat shows everyone
here (God and the people and himself) that God YaHUaH takes
responsibility for them, and that they must not trust in their own strength
or insight, but only put their hope in Him. It is beautiful that it also
says that all of Yehudah stood before the face
of YaHUaH, even their little children, their wives and their sons.
There is something of a great unity among all those people together, in
seeking YaHUaH.
And YaHUaH shows His involvement ,
as He speaks clearly through one of His servants:
14 Then the Spirit of
YaHUaH came upon Yachazi’el the Levite, the son of ZekharYahu, the son of BenaYahu, the son of Yei’el, the son of MattanYahu,
of the sons of ’Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. 15 And he said, Hear, all Yehudah and
all the inhabitants of Yerushalaïm and King
Yehoshaphat, this is what YaHUaH says to
you: Do not be afraid or dismayed because of this great multitude, for the
battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow you
shall go up against them, when they shall come up the ascent of Mt Tsits, and
you shall find them at the end of the valley before the wilderness of Yeru’el. 17 You will not
need to fight in this battle; take your stand, stand still, and see that
YaHUaH will give you victory. Fear not, Yehudah and Yerushalaïm, nor be dismayed;
tomorrow you shall go out against them; YaHUaH is with you. 18 Then Yehoshaphat bowed
down with his face to the earth; and all Yehudah
and the inhabitants of Yerushalaïm bowed down
before YaHUaH to worship YaHUaH. 19
And the Levites belonging to the Qohatites and the Qorachites stood up to
praise YaHUaH, the God of Isra’el, with a very great voice.
Yes, what else can you do but worship Him and praise Him, when
YaHUaH speaks to you so clearly and so caringly?!
What’s important as well, is to obey Him, when it comes to what He has
asked them to do. And that is what happens here, fortunately, and again
Yehoshaphat takes the lead and encourages the
people to continue to trust YaHUaH. He also appoints singers, who will
lead the way. Yes, in my own life too I notice how important it is to sing
praises to YaHUaH. Not only do you honor Him with it, you also
communicate very powerfully that you expect it all from Him. God responds
very clearly again.
20 Early the next
morning they went out to the wilderness of Teqo‘a. And as they went out, Yehoshaphat stood
and said, Hear me, Yehudah and residents of
Yerushalaïm: Trust in YaHUaH your God, and
you shall be established: Trust in His prophets, and you shall prosper.
21 And he took counsel with the people, and
appointed singers before YaHUaH, to praise the Holy Majesty, as they
went out before the armed men, saying, Praise YaHUaH; for His loving
kindness endures for ever. 22 And it happened,
on the moment they started to sing and to praise, YaHUaH ambushed the
descendants of ‘Ammon, and the descendants of Mo’ab, and the men of Mount
Se‘ir, which came against Yehudah; and they were
defeated. 23 Then the descendants of ‘Ammon and
Mo’ab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Se‘ir to destroy them and to
annihilate them. When they had finished with the inhabitants of Se‘ir, they
attacked and destroyed one another. 24 When Yehudah came to the watchtower in the wilderness, they
looked toward the people of war, and behold, they were dead bodies fallen to
the ground; not one had escaped. 25 Then Yehoshaphat and his people came and plundered their
spoil, and they found with them both goods and clothing and precious things in
abundance; they plundered so much that it was too much to carry. There was so
much plunder, it took them three days to haul it off.
YaHUaH had fought their battle. They had only a great deal of spoil
to take from this adventure with YaHUaH. A surprise gift! Yes, that was
reason for great gratitude and praise to YaHUaH:
26 On the fourth day
they gathered together at ‘Emeq Berakhah -
the Valley of Praise, and there they praised YaHUaH; therefore the
name of that place is called ‘Emeq Berakhah
- the Valley of Praise to this day. 27 Then all the
men of Yehudah and Yerushalaïm, with Yehoshaphat at their head,
returned to Yerushalaïm with joy, for
YaHUaH had made them rejoice over their enemies. 28 They came to Yerushalaïm, to the
House of YaHUaH, with harps, lyres, and trumpets.
One of the appealing aspects of this story, I think, is the continued,
positive interaction between YaHUaH and His people.
29 And great fear of God
came upon all the kingdoms of the lands, when they heard that YaHUaH
had fought against the enemies of Isra’el. 30 But
the kingdom of Yehoshaphat had rest, for his God
gave him peace on every side.
How impressive it must have been for those other peoples to see that it
was not Isra’el itself that had fought, but that their God, YaHUaH, had
done it.
The Hebrew expression of great fear of God that is used here is the pachad
’Elohim. That is a different fear than the yir’at YaHUaH
about which I wrote earlier. This is a
fear that leaves you standing more at a distance. However, God gave His own
people rest; here that is the Hebrew nuach - a rest of not being
frightened anymore, which is in stark contrast to that pachad.
Do you see how the glorious Name, YaHUaH, appears throughout this
passage, from beginning to the end?
Yehoshaphat feels himself free to use The Name
– both in his prayers & petitions and in his words to the people.
And in the end, it appears that even the people in neighboring countries
knew - and feared - YaHUaH, the God of Isra’el, Who had intervened so
majestically and gloriously for His people.
Yes, the glorious Name of the God of the Bible, YaHUaH, is worthy
of being mentioned, praised and proclaimed by all peoples – even today
and forever!
Hallelu YaHUaH !
Notes
| 1 |
Some of the names in this article may appear different
from what you are used to. The reason is that I transliterated all personal
names as literally as possible, in line with international conventions. Some
Hebrew letters/sounds that not everybody may be consciously familiar with, were
transliterated with special signs or letter-combinations: ’ for the
’aleph - a glottal stop, e for the
Hebrew shewa’ - a very small uh sound
(sometimes also written ə), ch for the soft chet and kh for the soft
kaph - both sounding somewhat like the ch in loch, ph for the soft
pé - sounding like the f, and ‘ for the Hebrew ‘ayin - a voiced
pharyngeal fricative (also /ʕ/).
The Hebrew yod is transliterated by i (vowel) or y (consonant). |
| 2 |
The glorious Name of God I represent here as accurately
as possible from the oldest Hebrew original, instead of replacing this grand
personal Name of The Most High by a common word, such as ‘Lord’. For more
background information see:
André H. Roosma, ‘The
wonderful and lovely Name of the God Who was there, Who is there, and Who
will be there’  , extensive Accede! / Hallelu-YaH! study, July 2009.
See also the other articles on the
significant Name of God, on the articles page here. |
Previous articles in this series on The significant
Name of God:
‘(27) - The Use
and Non-Use of Names in the Bible’,
28 October 2024;
‘(26) - The יראת יהוה - Yir’at YaHUaH’
(commonly referred to as ‘the fear of the LORD’, but what does the Bible here
really refer to?), 26 October 2024;
‘(25) - The praise-song
of Mosheh (Moses)’, 13 Oct. 2024;
‘(24) His Name is exalted - call upon His Name!’ (a brief note on Is.12),
14 April 2024;
‘(23) The Speaking God of the Exodus and of the entire Bible’,
6 March 2024;
‘(22) The riches of the Title אֵל רַחוְּם
- ’El Rachum’, 13 March 2021;
‘(21) Why Christianity often ignored The Name YaHUaH’,
21 June 2020;
‘(20) YaHUaH - the true God of the Bible - is involved!’,
19 June 2020;
‘(19) The riches of the Title אֵל שַׁדַּי
- ’El Shaddai’, 17 June 2020;
‘(18) Why Rabbinic Judaism refuses to mention THE NAME’,
14 June 2020;
‘(17) What we learn from Jesus’ temptation in the desert’,
12 June 2020.
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